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There’s a hole in Uncle Sam’s head, where all the money goes,
…the fiscal 2013 cost of national security comes to more than $1.3 trillion—two and a half times the basic Defense budget.
Eleven days after the massacre, Wayne LaPierre – a lifelong political operative who had steadied the National Rifle Association through many crises – stood before an American flag and soberly addressed the nation about firearms and student safety: “We believe in absolutely gun-free, zero-tolerance, totally safe schools. That means no guns in America’s schools, period,” LaPierre said, carving out a “rare exception” for professional law enforcement. LaPierre even proposed making the mere mention of the word “guns” in schools a crime: “Such behavior in our schools should be prosecuted just as certainly as such behavior in our airports is prosecuted,” LaPierre said.
First we must learn the geometry and do some trig,
Except for the irrepressible Brad Plumer, who wrote this in the WonkBlog:
Was this big plunge in defense spending unusual? Yes and no. To a certain extent, it’s part of a pattern: Defense spending often rises in the third quarter of a year and drops in the fourth quarter.
So everyone spends every nickel they have been budgeted for, so they don’t give the impression to the Congress that they can do with less.
Do the math.
The Constitution isn’t a suicide pact,
Background checks may be an inconvenience to gun purchasers??? That’s a canard. Anyone who wishes to buy a gun ought to have at least thought that through, just like they would, if they are rational, about buying a hamburger. So it is inconvenient to whom? Emotionally distraught individuals? These are exactly the people that don’t need to be in possession of weapons of any sort, and I find it highly dubious that any responsible gun owner should object to interjecting a cooling off period into the purchase.
I’m not exactly comfortable with calling the yo-yos that parade around in public with weapons, just to impress me or others with their second amendment assertion of rights, to be anymore rational than the run of the mill gun owners who like to go out and drink a twelve pack and blow up pigeons, clay or otherwise. These are not shining examples of responsible gun ownership, or drinking for that matter.
I happen to be one of those people that think the left needs guns too, so while I can agree to a degree with La Pierre’s assertion about needing them if the nation falls into chaos, it is such a rare occurrence as to be laughable when the mentally deranged are blowing up kids by the dozens.
My position on clips is pretty straight forward. I can mill one and anyone with a modicum of determination could do so as well. I also agree that federal law limits the rounds that a shotgun may hold in the magazine, just as I acknowledge that removing the plug, while illegal, is probably more common than most people realize. Most of us comply with the law, and according to Mr. La Pierre, those who do not are outlaws and should not be in possession of weapons. I would love to hear his remedy for that situation.
I grew up shooting, and the fact of the matter was we had a single shot .22 that we little kids got to practice with, and not much either, since my people were very strict about wasting ammunition. I recall one weekend when my uncle, father, aunt and older sister and brother went hunting when we lived at a little ranch, the 7-K west of Rangely, Colorado. They came back and strung up 21 rabbits, and one deer. The thing I remember most is my uncle absolutely berating my older brother for having missed a shot at a rabbit. He was using the pump 22 that had been my Grandmothers. It held 11 rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber if you didn’t get caught, which situation would give you an introduction to Uncle Harold’s hula hoop, one third of a green hula hoop he kept over the front door of the main cabin as reminder to us pee wees who was boss. We learned gun safety and handling them responsibly quick, and I almost always hit what I aim at.
I see no reason for assault weapons whatsoever, but understand that other people have other tastes. More power to them. Some of them are great white hunters of the various road signs on rural roads, which sort of outlawry I would also like to hear Mr. La Pierre address from his pulpit. You know, these are stupid fucking people.
We have to be cognizant of the fact that these mass shootings are a relatively new phenomena. If it is a societal ill we need to figure out what it is and root it out, because we can’t outlaw or regulate stupid, irresponsible behavior by gun owners asserting their second amendment rights to posses firearms? Seems to me this will lead to the chaos Mr. La Pierre fears and decries.
But this isn’t about some abstract understanding of the Constitutional right, as it is being presented in the theater of the Senate. You people have got to accept responsibility for the society you live in. That is your job.
It shouldn’t be too hard for responsible gun owners to understand why weapons aren’t allowed in drinking establishments, and to ban them there doesn’t seem to interfere with anyone’s second amendment right. It’s common sense. That Chicago or Houston would have stricter gun laws than we do out here in the boondocks isn’t any different, because the laws should reflect the situation that a community confronts, not the idealized world of Mr. La Pierre’s abstractions.
I think it is high time this Congress and this nation move past their pretensions on gun safety and rights. No one wants responsible gun owners weapons. We just want an end to the stupid.
We’ve made up our minds, don’t confuse us with facts.
And at this point, of course, all the Very Serious People have committed their reputations so thoroughly to the official doctrine that they almost literally can’t hear any contrary evidence.
And the band played on,
If you want to make the argument that there are benefits from lower tax rates, economies do better, job creation is higher — then gather your data and make your case.
Here are the highlights of the Democratic entitlement reform menu:
Social Security: ‘Chained CPI’
Democrats like Allen Simpleton?
But, but,
Ask liberals about GOP demands to rein in Social Security and Medicare spending, and many say this: no way.
But the truth is, there are a number of ideas to do just that already sitting on the shelves of influential liberal think tanks around Washington.
Oh,Third Way Liberals like Nelson Rockefeller, as opposed to any which way but loose liberals like my favorite martian, and various orangutangs?
Heh.
Drones aren’t just for bees and warmongers.
All your data are belong to US.
Caspar Bowden, who served as Chief Privacy Adviser to Microsoft Europe for nine years until 2011, told The Independent: “What this legislation means is that the US has been able to mine any foreign data in US Clouds since 2008, and nobody noticed.”
This really isn’t anything new. (Echelon) The “laws” that prevent a nation such as America from doing this to its’ own citizens cannot prevent other nations from doing so, and so the intelligence agencies merely swap information with each other.
Eric Clapton will release a new album, Old Sock, on March 12th, marking the guitar icon’s 21st studio record and first since 2010’s Clapton.
The holes in your head are obvious. Can’t we do a transplant instead?
Okian Warrior writes with word that, as of Monday evening, multiple police agencies and the military were
“conducting training exercises over Miami and elsewhere in the county. The exercise includes military helicopters firing machine-gun blanks while flying over highways and buildings. This YouTube video shows helicopters strafing highways with blank rounds near the Adrian Arts center. There are reports of similar actions in Houston From the Houston article: ‘if you see the helicopters or hear gunfire, it’s only a drill.'”
Maybe we need to run mental health background checks on these yo-yos too.
There are millions of people in America that will spend three bucks a day to drink bottled water, (3X365+1/4,) but would be unwilling to pay one hundred dollars a year more in property taxes for ten years to drill deeper wells and replace corroded city water pipes.
That’s socialism.
Terraformed 